SoCal CTO

MARCH 3, 2011

I talk to roughly 2 or 3 new startups every week who need advice from an experienced CTO. Of course, I provide part-time CTO services. But the reality is that I engage with about 5 new startups each year which means that I end up working with less than 5% of the startups where I provide these free consulting sessions.

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Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 20, 2010

Often I’m asked by startup CEO’s about how to best build an engineering team. Because more technology people probably read startup blogs I’m guessing this post will come under more scrutiny. Still, I believe I’m offering an accurate representation of the ideal configuration of the main technology leaders.

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SoCal CTO

APRIL 2, 2012

The problem is you don't yet have product/market fit, and until you do, you don't really know what to build. When product vision is truly clear, then it makes sense to execute it, and hiring follows. You may end up hiring these people eventually and you'll know more about them when you do. Far from it. They are very early.

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SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 30, 2013

Are you a non-technical startup founder who’s about to go have a conversation with a Chief Technical Officer (CTO) or Technical advisory type person? Maybe you are trying to determine what technologies might apply that you should be evaluating. I’m frustrated just thinking about it. It’s not warming us up.

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TechEmpower

AUGUST 21, 2023

It provides findings and recommendations intended to foster a mutual understanding between business and software leaders, shedding light on the current state of your technology and your team. Our goal is to build a decent understanding of your business, your product, and your technology.

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SoCal CTO

JANUARY 18, 2011

I received an inquiry from a reader of my blog and thought I would provide some thoughts, but would definitely welcome input: I am an unpaid CTO of a small startup. I have been working full time with two founders for about 10 months on full time basis. They both would have lots of thoughts and ideas. What type of shares?

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SoCal CTO

JANUARY 18, 2011

I received an inquiry from a reader of my blog and thought I would provide some thoughts, but would definitely welcome input: I am an unpaid CTO of a small startup. I have been working full time with two founders for about 10 months on full time basis. They both would have lots of thoughts and ideas. What type of shares?

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SoCal CTO

MAY 21, 2012

So, here goes: Dr. Tony Karrer Over the past 15 years, Tony has been a part-time CTO for more than 30 startups. Most notably, he was the original CTO for eHarmony for its first four years making him partly responsible for more than 4% of the marriages every year. Tony has a Ph.D. He is a frequent speaker at trade and industry events.

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SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 2, 2010

Based on my posts Startup CTO or Developer and Acting CTO , Chris O’Meara wrote an interesting post Startup CTO: Could It Work? They tend to know the operations side of a software business well enough to be the one overseeing deploys, crafting the infrastructure plans, and monitoring the health of the product.

CTO Hire 150

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SoCal CTO

NOVEMBER 1, 2010

I had a recent email dialog with the founder of a company looking for a CTO for their startup. Did they really need a Startup CTO or Developer or both? And do I fit as a Part-Time CTO , Technology Advisor , CTO Founder , Acting CTO ? He had a partially built product. Was it a case of needing Homework?

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TechCrunch LA

MAY 21, 2019

Propelled by new technologies, new businessmen have been landing in Los Angeles since the invention of the nickelodeon to create a studio that would dominate popular entertainment. Hardware makers have invested billions to improve the technology, and they’d like that money to not go to waste.

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SoCal CTO

OCTOBER 5, 2010

Great content again in September that meets at the intersection of startups, technology, product and being a Startup CTO. Chris Dixon , September 12, 2010 My most useful career experience was about eight years ago when I was trying to break into the world of VC-backed startups. Hybrid monetization. and chartbeat.

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SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2007

I generally am working as an acting CTO for about 3-4 start-ups or other companies at any one time. I also found this interesting graphic of the changing needs around the CTO role in different size/type companies that somewhat echoes my experience. During Stabilization, often the focus is transitioning to a full-time CTO.

Startup 231

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SoCal CTO

MARCH 4, 2010

I’ve worked with 30+ early-stage companies in all sorts of capacities (and spoken to many, many more), so I thought it might be worthwhile trying to classify the various ways that I’ve engaged in different technology roles in startups. Later he posted about his experience in Challenges of Startups.

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SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 17, 2007

skip to main | skip to sidebar SoCal CTO Saturday, February 17, 2007 About this Blog Ive been thinking about doing a blog with my thoughts on technology and whats happening in the Los Angeles area technology scene for a while, but it was Ben Kuos recent start of a blog that inspired me to actually go ahead and do it.

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TechCrunch LA

DECEMBER 5, 2018

Scott McCorkle has spent most of his professional career thinking about business to business software and how to improve it for a company’s customers. If customers are doing the things i want them to be doing through my product. What is it that they want to achieve and why did they buy my product. Midwest rising.

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SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

I continue to collect great content that is the intersection of startups, products, online and technology. The United States is now a debtor nation to China and that the bill is about to come due. So let’s be very specific: let’s assume your dream job is product manager at Google, working on the Analytics product.

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SoCal CTO

MAY 21, 2013

I thought it would be worth capturing some basic notes about what signals founders commonly are seeing that cause them to call me, what those signals might be indicating, and what might make sense to do as a founder if you are seeing some of these signals. Common Signals I''ve written previously about Symptoms of a Weak Development Team.

CTO Coach 219

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SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 13, 2013

I did a presentation this week at Coloft that looked at how Non-Technical Founders can go about getting their MVP built. Purpose of an MVP and Defining the Right MVP I've really not talked as much about this in my blog even though its hugely important. It had a passionate group of 50 people attending.

Technical Review 338

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SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 10, 2012

I did a presentation recently for a graduate class from The Founder Institute around getting online/mobile products out the door. It was like having a bunch of mini- Free Startup CTO Consulting Sessions all in one room. Third party products are used appropriately. CTO Founder - Do they really still need a technical advisor?

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TechCrunch LA

AUGUST 9, 2022

The funding, a Series C, will be used to continue expanding Boulevard’s product and engineering teams and to build out more tools targeting an ever-wider set of users in the bigger wellness and beauty sector (those product additions are typically big — it most recently added a whole new payments feature).

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TechCrunch LA

OCTOBER 1, 2019

The new financing will give Relativity the cash to fully build its “Stargate” factory, a semi-autonomous, full-scale production facility that will house the company’s massive 3-D printers and produce its first rocket, the Terran 1. “These guys have built the world’s largest 3-D printer.” ” .

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Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 12, 2010

I recently wrote a post about avoiding the “ Deferred Life Plan &# and some related thoughts about personal productivity that came from Tim Ferriss’s book, The Four Hour Workweek. I would love to say that I’m the productivity guru. Admittedly I also fall into this trap.

Product 280

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SoCal CTO

MAY 13, 2014

The conversation with Bob was about what the composition of advisors should look like. You can’t afford and don’t want to hire a full-time CTO or architect. While Bob’s post focuses on Technology Advisors and the Startup Founder Developer Gap , we also discussed advisors more broadly.

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TechCrunch LA

SEPTEMBER 24, 2019

Remarkably, Canoo has completed the design and engineering of its first model in just 19 months and is preparing its vehicles for production through a contract manufacturer. When you subscribe, you think differently about a car – now the value is defined by the user benefit.

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SoCal CTO

MARCH 12, 2012

I've talked about that in lots of other posts, so you can visit some of these to help determine what you specifically need: Startup CTO or Developer Startup Software Development – Do Your Homework Before You Develop Anything Key ingredients in the equation are: How complex is the system? Ask them about your concept.

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SoCal CTO

NOVEMBER 10, 2009

He has a really interesting background as a product manager and now an entrepreneur. Tell me a bit about your background. Like many product managers, my background is fairly eclectic. That's where I learned I enjoyed interacting with customers and working with development teams to build and launch products.

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socalTECH

JANUARY 2, 2013

For this year's first article, we share the advice of Tony Karrer , Founder and CTO of TechEmpower , Founder and CTO of Aggregage and organizer of the LA CTO Forum and Startup Specialist Network , two local groups focused on startups. Then we discussed how they could go about finding this startup business advisor. .

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 24, 2021

Think about how much more value was created for all these constituencies (and society) by Snap staying independent vs. Instagram selling to Facebook.  —  @jasonlk How the Long Game Has Benefitted Upfront I was thinking about it this morning in particular and thinking about my own personal investment history.

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SoCal CTO

OCTOBER 15, 2009

Steve Gilison worked as a market researcher and product manager at a startup where my company, TechEmpower , did the software / web development. Remind me about your background Steve? I have about 11 years in the technology sector including roles doing market research, sales and product development.

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SoCal CTO

APRIL 28, 2014

If there’s some issue they didn’t think about are they going to be beat up about it? I.e., they need a developer more than they need a CTO. Have an open discussion with them about what you are trying to achieve through the questions. This is a classic sign and you need to do something about it.

Develop 280

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SoCal CTO

JANUARY 5, 2011

Some really great stuff in 2010 that aims to help startups around product, technology, business models, etc. 500 Hats , February 1, 2010 When to Use Facebook Connect – Twitter Oauth – Google Friend Connect for Authentication?

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socalTECH

DECEMBER 21, 2020

The pandemic allowed us to experiment with working from home, which has proven to be quite successful without sacrificing productivity. Thats what our users come to Spokeo for -- accurate data about people. We want to understand the why & how before tackling the what so that we can deliver high quality products to our users.

Technical Review 113

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SoCal Tech Calendar

NOVEMBER 30, 2012

Thursday, December 6, 2012 -- LA CEOs in coordination with the LA CTO Forum presents: CEO Pain Points; Working with the CTO. s top CEOs and CTOs. Discover what keeps each other up at night with worry about their key partner in their technology business. See [link] (more)

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SoCal CTO

MAY 27, 2010

I received a follow-up question from an early-stage startup about the Founder Developer Gap that I’ve described before and that was part of the interview with Frank. And there are all sorts of different kinds of technical people who might help with getting that product to happen. This is somewhat the heart of what a CTO does.

CTO Hire 170

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Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 17, 2019

I had just left Salesforce.com where I was VP, Products, after they had acquired my second startup. As I was trying to figure out the role I wanted to play in the VC world I decided I wanted to focus on businesses that were building deeply technical products to solve problems for business users. But here’s the big “aha.”

Venture Capital 223

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SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 17, 2007

skip to main | skip to sidebar SoCal CTO Saturday, February 17, 2007 Finding Good Developers in Los Angeles? Im part of a CTO group that meets once a month to discuss various topics. About 18 months ago, the entire group began to mention that they were having more difficulty finding good developers. in Computer Science.

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